Japan to import more hardwood plywood

KUCHING: Japan, which has drastically cut imports of Malaysian plywood in the past two years due to sluggish sales, has stepped up buy orders of hardwood plywood due to a strong demand for reconstruction works after the recent devastating Hagibis typhoon.

Japanese importers have started increasing the sales prices of imported tropical plywood as supply mills in Malaysia and Indonesia continue to raise their export prices and reduce production output due to log shortage.